Natural Ways to Improve Your Posture

Maintaining good posture exudes confidence and health. It also prevents back and neck pain and helps to encourage the greatest amount of endurance. Few people have excellent posture without trying, but the good news is that there are a few tips and tricks to help you improve your posture.

How to Identify Good Posture

When you are first working to improve your posture it is a good idea to get a look at your posture and straighten it up and look at the difference. This can be done by standing next to a full-length mirror. When looking into the mirror, align your shoulders, hips and ears. The natural spinal curve should be maintained. If you experience discomfort, you are forcing it and should loosen up a little bit.

Train Your Muscles

Weak and untrained muscles will have a hard time maintaining good posture. You will need to focus on strengthening your shoulder and upper back muscles. When these muscles have good strength, they will naturally pull you into the proper alignment.

Sit Up Straight

You mom probably told you this dozens of times as a child and for good reason. You want to sit back against the back of the chair, use a small pillow for lumbar support, keep your head upright, feet flat on the floor, head up and shoulders straight. This may seem really uncomfortable and if your muscles are not trained, it could be. However, you will experience more discomfort by not working to improve your posture, so it is important to work toward proper posture.

When you sit a lot for work, it is important to use proper posture, but it is also to take a posture break. To do this, you should stand up for five or ten minutes every one to two hours. This gives the muscles helping to keep you aligned a break so that they can rest and be ready for a few more hours of sitting correctly. Just standing up, take a short stroll and/or stretching is plenty to accomplish this.

Sleep Posture

When we sleep, it is really easy to throw all of that effort for good posture out the window. The wrong mattress and not sleeping correctly can result in waking up with back pain. First and foremost, you need a good, firm mattress and a pillow that properly supports your head and neck. Sleeping on your stomach should be stopped now as it throws off all aspects of proper posture. Sleeping on your back is the best way to maintain alignment, but not everyone is comfortable on their back. If you are sleeping on either of your sides, put a small pillow between your knees to keep your hips and spine in the proper alignment.

Keep Your Back Healthy

When your back is injured, it can make it difficult to use correct posture. When you are working to improve your posture, you must use proper lifting techniques to avoid back injuries. This means that you should life with your legs and carry heavy items close to your chest to take off the load on your back.

Steven Madison’s fascination with the human body and posture led him to study health sciences and human skeleton models. He’s a personal trainer who has helped many improve their postures.

The information, unless noted specifically, has NOT been verified or approved by FDA. This site is for educational purposes and does not claim to offer medical advice. Please seek a trained professional when appropriate.